Brand Protection: Importance of Registering Multiple TLDs

(Ping! Zine Web Tech Magazine) – As most business owners understand, one of the first steps to establishing an online presence for a company is the selection of a domain name. As one of the most important elements of your website, the domain name is what your current and potential customers use to find your website on the internet. One part of this element that might not be as obvious to small business owners is the need to register your domain under multiple top-level domains (TLDs) such as .com, .org, or .co.

The reason one might want to register the same name under more than one TLD is for brand protection. For instance, if your company is called Example Company, your audience will type “ExampleCompany” into their Web browser, but could guess “ExampleCompany.com” when your website is actually at “ExampleCompany.net.”

By registering a domain name with several TLDs, you can capture the most amount of traffic while protecting your brand at the same time. Even though you can redirect all of the names back to the same website, simply having multiple domains prevents other people from registering them, and makes it easier for visitors to find you.

This has been common practice by businesses for several years, but lately the domain namespace has become very crowded, especially in the most popular .com TLD. Due to how many names are registered with .com every day, it has become progressively harder to get a name that is short and memorable.

Fortunately, with the introduction of many new TLDs being released in the next few years, the options for small business owners will increase. With more specific industry and geographic TLDs such as .restaurant or .miami, you can register your business name under a brand new TLD, and have a much better chance of it being available.

Even if you already have the name you want under a .com and other traditional TLDs, it is worthwhile to consider which new TLDs make the most sense to register for your business, so that you can continue to protect your brand. Check out 1&1’s pre-registration portal at http://www.1and1.com/new-top-level-domains.

1&1 Internet Inc., a global leader among Web hosts, provides companies with the tools necessary to get online and be successful. For more useful tips on how you can drive success for your business via your website or online marketing methods, visit success.1and1.com.”